rossfisher2
The town and gown riots of 1471
The character of the average mob can vary to quite a degree. In particular, the relative wealth and provenance of the mob can have a significant outcome.
Your stereotypical torch and pitchfork mob, for example, are common rural peasants, but freeholders rather than indentured servants. They can afford to own their own tools.
This particular mob was urban in nature, but cosmopolitan in income. The tools were esoteric, with hammers, knives, horsewhips and cudgels particularly common. One inventive fellow had mixed stones and manure in a horse's feed bag, and the home-made flail was proving popular with the slum ultras.
The other character that this mob displayed was a seething viciousness. Agrarian peasant revolts are, as often as not, motivated by fear and mistrust. However, this rabble knew what brazen-faced injustices are being perpetrated against them, and were hell-bent on achieving justice. When a night watchman found the dissected body of a ghoul in an abandoned brewery, suspicion naturally fell on the academy. In Magdelnbad, and thanks to a small push from Scholar Dietlaff, it had become too much.
Not that he was admitting any kind of guilt in the matter. It had been Scholar Reinhardt's idea, and Burgwort's execution. He was barely involved. And townsmen were always looking for an excuse to vent their frustrations on their betters. Quite likely the rioters would engage in serious looting and property damage before the evening ran its course.
When some hear about 'town and gown' riots, they imagine an army of young men, tarted up in sub fusc like prima donnas at a portrait. In reality, the scholars had no such uniform. The duelling society had managed to slap on their leathers before heading out, and as a result, they were the furthest from the line of scrimmage. Scholar Gerhart had been the most zealous, and had joined the mob straight from his bed. He would subsequently return there to sleep soundly, having damaged three men beyond repair. Scholar Dietlaff stayed comfortably behind the ruckus, occasionally chucking bottles over the heads of his classmates.
At the end of the day, 12 men lay dead. Another 9 were crippled for life, and 34 took years to adapt to their injuries. Scholar Dietlaff walked away from the whole thing feeling confused about the result.
The town and gown riots of 1471
The character of the average mob can vary to quite a degree. In particular, the relative wealth and provenance of the mob can have a significant outcome.
Your stereotypical torch and pitchfork mob, for example, are common rural peasants, but freeholders rather than indentured servants. They can afford to own their own tools.
This particular mob was urban in nature, but cosmopolitan in income. The tools were esoteric, with hammers, knives, horsewhips and cudgels particularly common. One inventive fellow had mixed stones and manure in a horse's feed bag, and the home-made flail was proving popular with the slum ultras.
The other character that this mob displayed was a seething viciousness. Agrarian peasant revolts are, as often as not, motivated by fear and mistrust. However, this rabble knew what brazen-faced injustices are being perpetrated against them, and were hell-bent on achieving justice. When a night watchman found the dissected body of a ghoul in an abandoned brewery, suspicion naturally fell on the academy. In Magdelnbad, and thanks to a small push from Scholar Dietlaff, it had become too much.
Not that he was admitting any kind of guilt in the matter. It had been Scholar Reinhardt's idea, and Burgwort's execution. He was barely involved. And townsmen were always looking for an excuse to vent their frustrations on their betters. Quite likely the rioters would engage in serious looting and property damage before the evening ran its course.
When some hear about 'town and gown' riots, they imagine an army of young men, tarted up in sub fusc like prima donnas at a portrait. In reality, the scholars had no such uniform. The duelling society had managed to slap on their leathers before heading out, and as a result, they were the furthest from the line of scrimmage. Scholar Gerhart had been the most zealous, and had joined the mob straight from his bed. He would subsequently return there to sleep soundly, having damaged three men beyond repair. Scholar Dietlaff stayed comfortably behind the ruckus, occasionally chucking bottles over the heads of his classmates.
At the end of the day, 12 men lay dead. Another 9 were crippled for life, and 34 took years to adapt to their injuries. Scholar Dietlaff walked away from the whole thing feeling confused about the result.